The new and distinct Hosta plant, hereinafter also referred to as ‘Eye Declare’ and “the plant” is a new and distinct cultivar of hosta. It was found by Clarence Falstad in October of 1999 as an un-induced whole plant sport of the Hosta cultivar ‘Sea Fire’ (not patented) at a tissue culture facility at a nursery in Zeeland, Mich. Hosta ‘Sea Fire’ is a hybrid of Mrs. Mildred Seaver formerly of Needham Height, Mass. The plant has been successfully propagated by division and tissue culture methods at the same perennial plant nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and found to produce identical plants that maintain the unique characteristics of the original plant. The plant is stable and reproduces true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
Hosta ‘Eye Declare’ differs from its parent sport, ‘Sea Fire’ as well as all other hostas known to the applicant, in that the plant is variegated with a viridescent yellow center emerging in the spring with a very light butter yellow and dark green margin. With warmer summer temperatures the center color gradually develops to a light to medium green. Hosta ‘Sea Fire’ also has another sport: ‘St. Elmo's Fire’ (not patented), which has the same viridescent yellow center with a white margin.
The most similar known hosta cultivar is ‘Paradise Power’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,117. Both cultivars are yellow with a green margin, but ‘Eye Declare’ is viridescent and ‘Paradise Power’ is lutescent. ‘Paradise Power’ is also much larger and has a longer more pointed leaf than ‘Eye Declare’. ‘Paradise Power’ also does not possess the red stippling that ‘Eye Declare’ has in the leaf petiole and scape and seed pod. Several other cultivars with yellow leaf centers and green margins also exist, but with fewer similarities to the plant.